Spiritual Meme Question Four

[bobby1933]

4--What, if anything, about religion A (place name of any applicable religion here) and it's followers makes you mad? Why? (You don't need to actually place a religion here, just talk about the patterns in any religion). Have you chosen to abandon that religion and/or part of that religion and/or it's followers, why or why not

Comments

[vaporw]

The brain washinng of Catholisism

[bobby1933]

Yeah, but there is also "socialization" and "formation" and sometimes its hard to tell where one process ends and the other begins. (This comment is not intended to dismiss or underplay your own experience!)

[velvetechos]

I certainly don't think that religious leaders should do the thinking for their followers, and that is one thing that I value in my own personal belief system (there is no God but God, all people have faults). Often in religions it goes from having faith in something to worshipping symbols, or "higher ups" in the church/temple/and so on. Even prophets are human, and human beings are not perfect. We all have a mind, and we should use it to draw our own conclusions with anything we encounter.

[bobby1933]

Yes, of course.
My thinking is affected by the fact that, when i was young, i was taken to a lot of "revivals" where the preacher addressed large crowds, shouted a lot, and pretended to speak for God. Sometimes the God they spoke for was vengeful, angry, and even malicious (to my way of thinking) It was "generation of vipers" (which, in my opinion, Jesus never said) rather than "Blessed are the poor" that i heard in the churches i went to.

[topum]

I am probably lucky, I have never been part of any religion or church where leaders were trying to think for the other members.

[bobby1933]

Good!

[bobby1933]

:)

John Cardinal Newman once wrote something to the effect that he thought his way to the door of the Church, but once inside he let the Church do his thinking. I don't know what he meant by this but it horrifies me. But when the Tao Te Ching says that a sage has no mind of her own, she uses the mind of the people, i do not cringe but speculate on its meaning. I know that "losing one's mind" means different things to different people in different contexts.